Rensselaerswyck was a Dutch colonial patroonship and later an English manor owned by the van Rensselaer family located in the present-day Capital District of New York in the United States.
The estate was originally deeded by the Dutch West India Company in 1630 to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant and one of the company's original directors. Rensselaerswyck extended for miles on each side of the Hudson River. It included most of the land that would later become the New York counties of Albany and Rensselaer, as well as parts of Columbia and Greene counties.
Under the terms of the patroonship, the patroon had nearly total jurisdictional authority, establishing civil and criminal law, villages, and a church (in part to record vital records, which were not kept by the state until the late 19th century). Tenant farmers were allowed to work on the land. During the late 18th century and early 19th century, farmers purchased the land. However, by the conditions of the deed, they had to pay rent and the patroon had rights to natural resources. If the farm was sold, the patroon was entitled to 25% of the sale price.
The patroonship was maintained intact by van Rensselaer descendants for more than two centuries. At the time of his death in 1839, Steven van Rensselaer III's land holdings made him the tenth-richest American in history. His son Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, the 10th and last patroon, received the bulk of his holdings; son William received some lands east of the Hudson. Following the death of Steven van Rensselaer III, tenant farmers began protesting the manor system. Under financial, judicial, and political pressure from this anti-rent movement, Stephen IV and William van Rensselaer sold off most of their land, ending the patroonship in the 1840s. For length of operations, the van Rensselaer patroonship was the most successful patroonship established under the West India Company system.
Establishing patroonships Upon discovery of the Albany area by Henry Hudson in 1609, the Dutch claimed the area and set up two forts to anchor it: Fort Nassau in 1614 and Fort Orange in 1624, both named for the Dutch noble House of Orange-Nassau. This established a Dutch presence in the area, formally called New Netherland. In June 1620, the Dutch West India Company was established by the States-General and given enormous powers in the New World. In the name of the States-General, it had the authority to make contracts and alliances with princes and natives, build forts, administer justice, appoint and discharge governors, soldiers, and public officers, and promote trade in New Netherland.Sylvester, 1880, pp.27-30
In order to attract capitalists to the colony, the managers of the West India Company, offered certain exclusive privileges to the members of the company in 1630. The terms of the charter stated that any member who founded a colony of fifty adults in New Netherland within four years of the charter's writing would be acknowledged as a patroon of the territory to be colonized. The only restriction was that the colony had to be outside the island of Manhattan.
To meet such cases, the West India Company adopted the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions for the agricultural colonization of its American province. The chief features of this charter stated that lands for each colony could extend in length if confined to one side of a navigable river or if both sides were occupied. Additionally, the lands could extend into the countryside and even be enlarged if more immigrants were to settle there.
Each patroon would have the chief command within their respective patroonship, having the sole rights to fish and hunt. If a city were to be founded within its boundaries, the patroon would have the power and authority to establish officers and magistrates. Each patroonship was free of taxes and tariffs for ten years following its founding.
A contract to settle under a patroonship was enforceable: no colonists could leave the colony during their term of service without the written consent of the patroon, and the West India Company pledged itself to do everything in its power to apprehend and deliver up all fugitives from the patroon's service.
Colonists of a patroonship were limited by the West India Company in some instances. For example, fur trading was illegal for colonists; it was reserved as a Company monopoly. But, patroonships had the right to trade anywhere from Newfoundland to Florida, on the understanding that traders were to stop at Manhattan to possibly trade there first.
Each patroon was required to "satisfy the Indians of that place for the land", prescribing that the land must be bought (or bartered) from the local Indians, and not just taken. Dutch West India Company: Article XXVI of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions on Wikisource. Additionally, the Company agreed to defend all colonists, whether free or in service, from all aggressors, Dutch West India Company: Article XXV of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions on Wikisource and supply the patroonship— for free —"with as many blacks as it possibly can... for [no] longer [a] time than it shall see fit". Dutch West India Company: Article XXX of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions on Wikisource
Founding the Manor
Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a pearl and diamond merchant of Amsterdam, was one of the original directors of the Dutch West India CompanySpooner, 1907, p. 6 and one of the first to take advantage of the new settlement charter. On January 13, 1629, van Rensselaer sent notification to the Directors of the Company that he, in conjunction with fellow Company members Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, sent Gillis Houset and Jacob Jansz Cuyper to determine satisfactory locations for settlement. This took place even before the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was ratified, but was done in agreement with a draft of the Charter from March 28, 1628.Van Laer, 1908, p. 154 On April 8, 1630, a representative for van Rensselaer purchased a large tract of land from its American Indian owners adjacent to Fort Orange, on the west side of the Hudson River. It extended from Beeren Island north to Smack's Island and extended "two days' journey into the interior."
In the meantime, van Rensselaer made vigorous preparations to send out tenants. Early in the spring, several emigrants, with their farm implements and cattle, were sent out from the Netherlands under Wolfert Gerritson, who was designated the overseer of farms. These pioneers of the manor embarked at the island of Texel in the ship Eendragt, or Unity, under Captain John Brouwer. In a few weeks, they arrived at Fort Orange and began the development and settlement of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck.
A few weeks after the arrival of the first colonists, the patroon's special agent, Gillis Hassett, secured a grant of land from the Indians, lying mostly to the north of Fort Orange and extending up the river to an Indian structure called Monemins Castle. This was situated on Haver Island at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. This and the earlier purchase completed the bounds of the manor on the west side of the Hudson.
Each tenant was required to swear an oath of loyalty to the patroon, without question. The following is the oath stated by each tenant:
At the time, the land on the east side of the river, extending north from Castle Island to the Mohawk River was then the private property of an Indian chief named Nawanemitt. This territory was called "Semesseck" by the Indians, and described in the grant as "lying on the east side of the aforesaid river, opposite the Fort Orange, as well above as below, and from Poetanock, the millcreek, northward to Negagonee, being about twelve miles, large measure."
These purchases took place on August 8, and August 13, 1630, respectively, confirmed by the council at Manhattan, and patents formally issued therefor. Fort Orange and the land immediately around its walls, still remained under the exclusive jurisdiction of the West India Company. It eventually developed as the city of Albany, which was never under the direct dominion of the patroon.
But this large purchase by van Rensselaer excited the jealousy of other capitalists. He soon divided his estate around and near Fort Orange into five shares, in an effort to advance more rapidly the growth of the colony.Van Rensselaer, 1888, p. 7
Two of these shares he retained, together with the title and honors of the original patroon. One share was given to Johannes de Laet, another was given to Samuel Godyn, and the last to Samuel Blommaert; these three men were influential members of the Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company. On the ancient map of the colony, "Blommaert's Burg" is located at the mouth of what is now called Patroon Creek. "De Laet's Island" was the original name of van Rensselaer Island, opposite Albany. "De Laet's Burg" equates to Greenbush. "Godyn's Islands" are a short distance below, on the east shore. These three separate patroonships were subsequently purchased and dissolved into Rensselaerswyck proper by 1685.
Government The government of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck was vested in a general court, which exercised executive, legislative or municipal, and judicial functions. This court was composed of two commissioners, styled "Gecommitteerden", and two councilors, called "Gerechts-persoonen", or "Schepenen". These last equated to modern justices of the peace. There was also a colonial secretary, a "Schout-fiscaal", or sheriff, and a "Gerechts-bode", court messenger or constable.
The magistrates held their offices for a year, the court appointing their successors. The most important office in the colony was the schout-fiscaal, or sheriff. Jacob Albertsen Planck was the first sheriff of Rensselaerswyck. Arent van Curler, who immigrated as assistant commissary, was soon after his arrival promoted to commissary-general, or superintendent of the colony. He also served as colonial secretary until 1642, when he was succeeded by Anthony de Hooges.
Religion and culture
The population of the colony of Rensselaerswyck in its early days consisted of three classes: freemen on top, who emigrated from Holland at their own expense; farmers next; and farm servants sent by the patroon at the bottom of the caste system.
The first patroon judiciously applied his large resources to the advancement of his interests, and was quick to assist people on the estate. He initially defined several farms on both sides of the river, on which he ordered houses, barns, and stables to be erected. The patroon paid to stock these farms with cattle, horses, and sometimes with sheep, and furnished the necessary wagons, plows, and other implements. So the early farmer entered upon his land without being embarrassed by want of capital.
In 1642, at the behest of the Dutch West India Company, Johannes Megapolensis, a minister, Abraham States a surgeon, and Evert Pels, a brewer, were sent aboard the Dutch ship Houttuyn to Rensselaerswyck, which arrived at New Amsterdam on August 4, 1642. The ship brought a cargo of three hundred bushels of malt for Pels, four thousand tiles, and thirty thousand stone blocks for building, along with various farming equipment. Megapolensis became the first minister to serve at Rensselaerswyck. His contract stipulated that he serve for six years, at an annual salary of 1,100 guilders for the first three years. There were one hundred people in attendance at his first sermon. States became a member of the council in 1643, and the next year was appointed president of the board, with an annual salary of 100 florins. Pels erected the first brewery in the Dutch colony.Van Rensselaer, 1909, p. 200O'Callaghan, 1948, v. 1, p. 329
Sustaining the Manor :List of Patroons